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GM Brands Slammed In Latest Consumer Reports Reliability Survey

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General Motors didn’t make out all too well in the latest Consumer Reports Reliability Survey. The non-profit organization ranked GM brands towards the bottom of the list.

The reliability survey comes from owner responses, which CR said it received feedback on more than 500,000 vehicles in the latest survey. Vehicles spanned the 2000-2018 model years and covered 300 models.

The biggest fall from grace was the Buick brand. The brand placed eighth last year but tumbled 11 spots to 19th place. That’s a major fall from 2016 when Buick became the first U.S. auto brand to crack the top three rankings since data collection began in the 1980s.

Owners cited issues with the 2018 Buick Enclave’s nine-speed automatic transmission as a real sour point. And it gets worse from there.

Buick was the best-ranked GM brand in the latest survey. Chevrolet placed 23rd, down from 18th place; GMC placed 25th, up from 26th place; and Cadillac held steady in 28th place. The luxury division was the second-worst ranked brand, only behind Volvo. The only Cadillac vehicle deemed “better than average” was the XTS sedan, coincidentally enough.

Each GM brand has hovered toward the bottom of rankings for years, but this year’s list included a few bright spots. CR gave its recommendation nod to the Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Suburban. Each vehicle earned good scores in the reliability survey.

Domestic brands continue to perform poorly in the survey partially due to adding some untested technologies. As GM tries to play catch up with new turbocharged engines, transmissions with more gears and other technologies, the likelihood something hasn’t been entirely ironed out increases.

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83 Comments

If anyone takes the time to see how CR comes up with ratings you would realize that personal opinions don’t enter into the calculations and reliability doesn’t mean every single vehicle is bad from any given manufacturer. The fact is the newer cars (last 3 years or so) have huge electrical/infotainment/center stack problems across the board but sadly GM has gone downhill. My C6 Corvette has huge track mileage and is literally “Chevy tough” while 2 C7s have been taken back because of excessive problems. A few years ago their products were better, this is rating based on recent cars. So your old 150k truck isn’t like a newer vehicle.

Again if a recall fixes the vehicle, that is what MOST vehicle owners want. Most owners WOULD prefer a recall because it FORCES vehicle brands to fix there products. Some recalls are voluntary some are forced. I would love to know which brands voluntarily recall there products more, and which brands are forced to recall there products more.

Consumer Reports is nothing but crap on paper. Anyone who buys anything based on their recommendation is a gullible fool. The people who subscribe to it are the ones who respond to their “survey” and if you want to see WHO that is just look at the trolls who jumped on this article to belch out their comments.

A lot of people like to bad mouth GM. Personally there are a hell of a lot worse car brands out there. Try buying a Nissan or Honda and see what will happen down the road. It’s well documented their quality has diminished greatly. Watch 30+ year mechanic Scotty Kilmer on YouTube and find out the real truth about car brand reliability. Get a car with the crappy designed CVT transmission and see what happens at 20,000 miles.

Check the Corvette, Silverado, and Sierra forums if you want to read about GM’s POS 8L90 transmission, and how AFM
contributes to wear. Horror stories about dealers and that is normal BS. Was thinking about a new Silverado not with that transmission or DFM.

My wife and I own a new 2018 Traverse and had nothing but problems with it. It’s our first GM car in 9 years and might be our last again. It has had problems from day 1.
The roof rails were corroded and had to be replaced. The wheel speed sensor went out and the vehicle sat in the dealer for a month!! Meanwhile I contacted GM directly and had them pay for my monthly payment and my XM and my Wifi. Now the tailgate won’t work properly and the engine is idling rough along with the transmission acting strange intermittently.
So go ahead and tell me CR is wrong. I used to believe that until now as I’m experiencing it firsthand.

No surprise to me. We own a 2014 Cadillac ATS, 2015 GMC Canyon, 2017 GMC Denali HD. I would rate them terrible also. For the GM lovers like myself I have also had Great GM vehicles. In fact our last 3 were great vehicles and well over 140,000 each. However the new ones are nothing but JUNK. BUT the worst thing isn’t only the vehicles but GM will do NOTHING for the owners. To those who say Toyota should be on here because of problems, Toyota FIXES THERE VEHICLES. Toyota FIXES THERE KNOWN PROBLEMS. GM DOES NOTHING. Toyota or Lexus was #1 or high because unlike GM they care about there owners. I haven’t said a word about GM in 37 years of ownership but the last 3 vehicles JUNK.

Second generation, GM, grew up inna GM town, 40+ years working for GM. Seen it go from 50+% market share to bankruptcy. Couldn’t stand it any longer, retired early to get away from it all. Their products (and attitude to employees and customers) suck, I’ve heard it ALL. Also, mechanic, so I can keep my cars running. Seen family and friends disgusted and leave GM. I believe CR, based on my experience. Their Chevy/JDPowers ads for reliability r a joke, I don’t buy brand new and sell before 3yrs old.

Over all GM is doing a pretty good job. I fault the modern electronics hiccups for most of their hits. They still need to step it up a bit though with Mary Barra’s statement about no more crappy cars I think. Also CR is a biased left leaning tree hugger rag at any rate, and to me they should always be viewed while squinting a little.

You can have a bad experience from any auto maker. People just need to keep an open-mind that one vehicle they have does not mean that every model is problematic. I generally keep my vehicles till the wheels fall off.

The ’84 Cadillac Cimarron was a mix bag and kept that car for four years.

I had a ’96 Honda Civic which was O.K. in reliability but has its usual bugs since it was a brand new first year design.

My previous car was the ’06 B6 Passat which was problematic and have something else fix on it almost every six months. It was the best car I own when it came to performance, steering feel (probably the best part of the car) and fuel efficiency on the highway but the worst car also for as problems, maintenance and repairs are concerned. But for whatever reason, most people gave me positive comments on it. I had a love and hate relationship of the car.

My current car is the ’15 Regal 2.4 and that car is the most reliable bar none so far. The only things about it that i will complain about is poor fit and finish on the exterior and interior currently. When I first got the car, the Onstar system was defective, rear-view mirror was not steady, and imitated wood trim on the console was misaligned and had them corrected under warranty. The only problems currently, also, is that I have exterior paint on the hood of the car that is slightly faded. Also, not a big deal, but when I close the sunroof, every once in a while the roof senses something halfway and go back to open all the way again till I press the button second time to close all the way. I have over 60K miles on it with zero problems ever since I had the car over a year now. So, hopefully I will keep this vehicle for a very long time till the wheels start falling off of it.

More than likely, I will get another GM vehicle, hopefully a Cadillac. In all honesty, I am not a GM fanboy but am a car enthusiast in general and to any automaker I will be open to buy any of their products if the product appeal to me and pass my expectations. I will not buy VW again which is the only brand I will not go back to because I don’t know what their true definition is, meaning a bread-n-butter automaker with high maintenance and repair costs 3/4ths. the price of the German luxury brands does not make much sense as an ownership is concerned. Previous generation VWs had that luxury car exterior looks but now, they are bland and cheap looking with a identity crisis IMO. However, I do like the fact that with the timing chain, you don’t have to replace of the life of any GM vehicle is reason enough alone to stay with GM.

Here’s why GM stinks.
My $100,000 former GM halo car, the XLR will be totaled by the insurance company if a headlight or tail light is broken in an accident. GM has ZERO of them for available for purchase.

My $60,000 2013 Avalanche with 20,000 miles on it has a completely rusted frame. My 2003 Envoy with 120,000 miles has a better looking frame.

GM has quit caring about it’s customers, and just wants to shovel cars out the door.

Anyone thinking of buying a possible $170,000 Mid Engine Halo car should remember these things. GM will not support it beyond the last warranty date. Period.

David B.
That’s no different than anybody else. Manufacturers are responsible to support products for 7 years. After that, it depends on parts volume and is up to their discretion. That applies to Ford or Mercedes Benz and everybody else.

As products are now changing more quickly, expect this period to be reduced in the future.

Mercedes has brand new parts for 70 year old cars. In stock.
It’s not like “every other company” to not stock parts.
If you want to play in the sand box with Mercedes, you better do what they do, or better.

If you think that you can get everything for all Mercedes going back 70 years, you are in for a big surprise.
Sure they have “some parts” and will custom make some at a very healthy margin for certain models. For electronics on many cars, you’re SOL. I needed some special bolts (yield to break) for my supercharger on my 2008 E55 and they were discontinued in North America. Tried to get them from Europe but either unavailable or they won’t ship. After hours of research, had to settle for what was available. I’ve been told that some of the electronics is either discontinued or about to be.

Ever wonder why you rarely see old Mercs or even BMWs? (other than the cheap low end models)

So you’re saying GM has been lying for the last 20 years every time they talk about competing with them? LOL
Yes, I never said Mercedes has every part, I realize they don’t even come close.
The point is Mercedes themselves run a warehouse for very old parts. GM does not.

Again I will start by saying I AM a GM guy, 37 years now. And YES that’s what I’m saying. OK GM lovers like myself, you CAN NOT have it both ways. Either GM-Cadillac is doing a TERRIBLE job of making decisions, OR they are not trying to compete. PEOPLE you can’t thumbs down the FACTS, it doesn’t work that way.

If GM-Cadillac WAS truly trying to compete they would INVEST IN A LONG TERM PLAN. You can NOT compete with the LEADERS OF THE WORLD in luxury and NOT INVEST. It simply can NOT be done. And STICK WITH THE LONG TERM PLAN. You can NOT quit every four years and start over. AND A CHEVROLLAC is NOT going to compete.

Say its Mercedes your trying to beat. THE BEST OR NOTHING. READ it THE BEST OR NOTHING. The BEST. Mercedes is TRYING. Sure we ALL have already agreed everyone has an opinion and Mercedes does NOT hit a home run every day all day long. However there is NO question they are the WORLD LEADER in this game.

GM is simply trying to sell a GM vehicle at the largest profit. GM could care less about CADILLAC, or any other BRAND of GM. GM IS GM. GM is NOT Cadillac. GM is developing MASS vehicles to the market, selling them to the dealers, and letting the dealers handle the rest. AND THE MONEY PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE. The MONEY people, NOT the DREAMERS and DESIGNERS, or the ENGINEERS.

Mercedes, Audi and BMW did NOT win this battle in the USA over night. It took YEARS. Years of CONSISTANTLY building on AVERAGE a better mousetrap. Not EVERY one is or was better but on AVERAGE YES THEY ARE BETTER. IT IS A FACT. Why is Cadillac trying to compete with them. Do ANY of you people know history, they were ALL, and I mean ALL trying to compete with Cadillac once.

GM is NOT trying to compete. GM is trying to sell the NOT 1% a luxury vehicle because there are more of them, but at the same time not trying to loose the 1%ers they have still left. This is why you have a BASE Cadillac, LOW power with NO STANDARD options. You are trying to sell a dreamer a Cadillac, or simply someone who doesn’t care one bit, a vehicle that looks cool in there eyes.

You LOL. Because the REAL luxury LEADERS are LOL all the way to the BANK.

Hire this guy, hire that guy, move here, move there, put this person in charge of this guy, put that person in charge of that guy, hire this new marketing person, hire that marketing person. WHATEVER. There are literally a TON of Cadillac owners having troubles with the Cadillacs they own, THE CUSTOMER, and GM IS DOING NOTHING. LOL alright how are those Cadillac sales numbers going. LOL alright.

GM-Cadillac, start building a QUALITY vehicle, not ALL will be great, AND when you get the ones that are NOT great FIX them for the CUSTOMER and the CUSTOMER WILL buy another. LOL

Ill start by again saying I AM A GM GUY. So I won’t go as far as GM stinks. BUT, and I’ll say it again BUT, GM CUSTOMER SERVICE STINKS. Tom G in your own words TOYOTA WAS REPLACING THEIR TRUCK FRAMES. That should be enough said BUT , again BUT, I still don’t think most here get it. I think we have ALL established that ALL vehicle brands have troubles from time to time BUT, again BUT, OTHER BRANDS FIX THE KNOWN FAULTY DESIGNS AND FAULTY PARTS. And again just for you, probably not ALL troubles from every other brands are dealt with BUT, and again BUT, ******MOST***** are. Look at Cadillac CUE screens, every day you can read Cadillac forums and people are having troubles or they are delaminating, BUT GM-Cadillac is doing NOTHING.

Honda’s first Civics imported in the 70s exploded with rust years out of warranty. Guess what Honda did? They offered everyone with the problem Repair or cash. GM has NEVER done something like that, even after known issues like poor paint in certain years, frames that were never coated properly, and let’s not even talk about the last 15 years of their trucks rear brake lines rusting through, that they never fixed through multiple model year updates.